#glinda america

[coralcatsea]

I can never decide what I like better, a Wicked AU with Elphaba and Glinda as FrUK or USUK. In general, I prefer USUK, but in terms of what fits the characters...I mean, Glinda could possibly go either way with France or America, it's just–

Loathing is such a FrUK song. I can't really see England and America singing about loathing each other's hair and clothing. 😆 Popular, too, France seems more likely to diss England's appearance and insist upon a makeover than America.

I suppose America COULD be Fiyero and then it really would be USUK since Elphaba and Fiyero actually get together, buuut the musical is more about the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda. Though I suppose that's still a compromise that technically allows for both?

[hitchell-mope]

A master list of my Wicked au’s

Disney Descendants. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/767258938686177280/descendants-wicked-au

Supergirl. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/767342048099631104/supergirl-wicked-au

Once Upon A Time. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/768753848693211136/once-upon-a-time-wicked-au

The Addams Family. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/768848233171664896/the-addams-family-wicked-au

Doctor Who. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/770569563655045120/doctor-whowicked-au

Scarlet America. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/770771533163610112/scarlet-americawicked-au

Spideychelle. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/771042052297375744/spideychellewicked-au

Disney Animated Canon. https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/771301909057404928/disney-wicked-au

[beatrice1979a]

Wicked - Ugly Betty (2007)

Eden Espinosa (Elphaba), Megan Hilty (Glinda) & Kristopher Cusick (Fiyero). Also cameo of actress Marlo Thomas (That Girl)

Popular - I am not that girl - Defying Gravity

[thecoolguy24601]

So, it’s been hinted at that Lego will be making sets based on the 2024 Wicked movie.

If that’s true, it would be really funny if they did what they do for Marvel movies and make really inaccurate sets to mislead people. Like, give Glinda a car that shoots missiles or something.

[stuckontheceiling]

I won’t be taking any questions at this time

[rwbyangst12]

I would like a fanfiction that combines the original premise of Oz with Dorothy being a young child (8-12 since it's her book ages and her movie age) and instead of 1900 it's like in the original book it's 1939 and Wicked. Dorothy is worried for aunty Em and Uncle Henri because not only is it the Great Depression and part of the farmhouse is here with her but she's worried because they're have been talks of a potential war (the movie came out in August 25th and the war started in September 1st) but she's worried that her Uncle Henri might be drafted and her aunt might go with them cause what if they think she's dead)

While walking down the Yellow Brick Road Scarecrow asks why Dorothy keeps saying they need to ration they're things? Asks why she's so worried about food? Why is she so insistent on not buying a new dress? You've already re sewn and cleaned those same clothes for the past month. Boq is made of metal and has no clothes, the lion is a lion and therefore does not need clothes, and I'm a scarecrow I can't take my clothes off.

Down the road he begins to realise that this child isn't as okay and innocent as she seems with all of her skipping and dancing with the way she looks out the corner of her eye behind her pigtails or re checks her basket Incase they dropped anything.

Imagine because of all the interruptions, being attacked, the road itself, and then the wizard being a fraud she takes longer to get home. Perhaps instead of two-three months in Oz she's there for two-three years. The shoes don't work and Dorothy believes she's just killed two women even though it wasn't her fault at the time(Elphaba is alive but she's still in hiding with Fiyero) and got kidnapped and locked in a basement and almost burnt alive. She thinks that now she's never going to make it home. But you have fresh food and clothes here do you really want to go back. She can't help but think to herself before snapping out of it reminding herself of Aunty Em and Uncle Henri.

Or if Dorothy does make it home her Aunt and Uncle somehow end up sending her back because not only has World War ii begun but now that America is a part of it and Kansas was essentially a training ground for USAAF bombers and fliers so when she's back in Oz she looks for Fiyero or Galinda and Explains what happened.

Fiyero didn't know a potential war was on the horizon in Dorothy's home world. If he had known would he have sent her back or would he have kept her in Oz even if it was against her will. He takes her to Elphaba and explains what happened and they managed to reach out to Glinda and help give her a proper education, she gets taller thanks to a proper diet, she's at least somewhat healthy thanks to available medicine and hygiene products in Oz. She's lived longer than she thought she would have in Kansas and a lot longer than she thought she would have here in Oz. A LOT longer.

Also potential Dorzma and realising that Oscar Diggs is a name of a guy that went missing a few decades ago that her parents and guardians talked about with their families because this guy with a hot air balloon disappeared in a storm and no trace of him can be found. Obvious propaganda against a coloured women and a selective group of people because I believe Aunty Em not Uncle Henri would've raised her that way. She still wants to meet the wizard in hopes of going home but she's still suspicious because of how she was raised in this au.

[awildwriter]

thinking about an au fic where the hot air balloon worked and Glinda and Elphaba left Oz and ended up getting blown to somewhere in middle America

just vividly thinking about Elphaba trying to get directions from a cow and Glinda is just watching her gf work enamored af

then idk they just live the life they never would have been able to have in oz

[astrosouldivinity]

𝑾𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅: 𝑨 𝑹𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒍𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑

~ 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 ��𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚁𝚑𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚖 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝙱𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚜

🧹I had the opportunity to see Wicked, and it was an emotional experience that resonated deeply with me. The movie serves as a poignant mirror to our current social climate in America, particularly regarding how Black women are treated because of systemic racism. Here are my insights.

✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎

✯ As a Black woman, Wicked resonated deeply with me. I couldn't think of a better actress to portray Elphaba than Cynthia Erivo, who channels her experiences as a Black woman into the role in a way that feels both authentic and powerful. Elphaba embodies the struggles and resilience of marginalized identities (Black women), illustrating how society often seeks to harness our magic without truly valuing us. People recognize our power but attempt to appropriate it for their own gain, failing to uplift us or give credit where it’s due. This creates a sense of entitlement and a lack of genuine investment in our well-being.

✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎

✯ Glinda is a representation of the many performative allies I've encountered. Those who appear “nice” but whose kindness is ultimately superficial. They cling to their privilege and are unwilling to sacrifice it, even at the cost of the collective progress. It’s disheartening to realize that what seems like allyship is often a self-serving facade; you become a tool for them, prioritized only when it benefits their interests. Their support feels performative, as if they expect gratitude for merely acknowledging your existence. Glinda treats Elphaba like a token or pet even, enforcing an unspoken power dynamic that keeps Elphaba beneath her.

✯ Glinda is a coward; she desires to be seen as kind, yet her actions reveal otherwise. To her, maintaining power is more important than doing the right thing. Without her status, who is Glinda? This context reflects the lyrics from "Defying Gravity": “I hope you're proud how you would grovel in submission to feed your own ambition.” It perfectly captures the essence of performative allyship. She complicitly contributes to the suffering of others while projecting a facade of goodness. The saying goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Glinda is, in a sense, brainwashed; she is unable to see reality because she genuinely believes in the inherent goodness of the world. In contrast, Elphaba understands the harsh truth, shaped by her experiences of being an outcast and rejected by society.

✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎

✯ Emerald City wants to embody green but simultaneously vilifies Elphaba for being green herself. This parallel reflects how society often appropriates Black culture while rejecting Black people themselves. Throughout the movie, we see how easily people can paint you as the villain and undervalue you, undermining your capabilities no matter your qualifications. This narrative resonates with the experiences of many Black women who face constant scrutiny and doubt, even when they prove their worth time and again. Elphaba’s journey highlights the struggle against these unjust perceptions and the resilience required to rise above them.

✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎

✯ Marginalized for her skin color, Elphaba is made to feel inferior for being different. Yet, despite this, she shows empathy and compassion for those who lack it for her. Her ability to extend kindness in the face of adversity highlights her strength and resilience. This juxtaposition emphasizes the unfairness of her situation, as she navigates a world that often dehumanizes her while still choosing to uplift others. Elphaba's journey serves as a powerful reminder that true strength lies not only in overcoming one's struggles but also in maintaining compassion for those who may not understand or appreciate your worth.

✯ In “Defying Gravity,” Elphaba discovers that the minimal allies she thought she had were actually using her for their own selfish desires. Yet, she transcends above this betrayal, ultimately realizing her own power and ability to shape her own destiny. Similarly, in “Dancing Through Life,” Elphaba’s unique expression only gains validation through Glinda’s approval, highlighting how Glinda could have used her privilege to challenge the Wizard but consciously chose not to.

✯ Ultimately, Wicked invites us to reflect on the importance of authentic allyship and the responsibility that comes with privilege. It challenges us to examine how we can uplift marginalized voices rather than exploiting them for our own narratives. While the themes of this movie resonate with the current political climate in America, it can extend beyond just the Black experience; however, I find the parallels to be undeniably distinctive nonetheless.

✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎ 𖦹 ✴︎

✯ I would love to hear your perspectives on how the movie resonated with you and what feelings it evoked. Art is a reflection of life, and there’s so much you can learn from it. ☺️

𝔁𝓸𝔁𝓸- 𝓚𝓲𝓴𝓲 (𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢) 🩷💚

𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝 📋

• 𝙸’𝚖 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎. 𝙰𝚜 𝚊 𝙶𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚒 𝚖𝚘𝚘𝚗, 𝙸 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚊 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚝𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝙸 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚜. 𝙸𝚝’𝚜 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚞𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝚕𝚘𝚕!

[jackoshadows]

Saw Wicked last night. Living in a country outside the Anglosphere, have never heard of the musical or the book. Not even a fan of musicals.

I did like it. I liked Cynthia Erivo's character, Elphaba. I liked the themes of the story. Cynthia did such an amazing job.

I liked Elphaba not compromising on her empathy and integrity to get her life's desires. I liked her not throwing an oppressed group under the bus to further her own ambitions. Having been discriminated against, and being raised by Dulcibear, Elphaba can see from the pov of the animals which none of the privileged others - like Glinda - can. I liked her accepting herself. I liked her standing up to the Wizard.

The Wizard creating an enemy out of the animals to unite the masses and keep them ignorant is such a relevant message for today. This is exactly what politicians are doing today. This is exactly what the Hindu right wing goons in power are doing in India when they demonize Muslims or what Right Wing parties in Europe and North America are doing when they demonize immigrants and minorities including Trans folks.

Don't know what the story in part II is going to be but I hope it doesn't go the traditional route of good person does 'bad' things and needs to be taken down and the end doesn't justify the means that the corporate, capitalistic American Media loves to propagate where activists and those fighting for social justice are again and again and again portrayed as terrorists or tyrants.

The worst part of this movie is that this is produced by Marc Platt - the Zionist who tried to get Boots Riley kicked out of CAA because Riley spoke out against the mass slaughter of the Palestinian people.

The irony of Platt producing a movie like this with themes like this and a message like this while he cheerleads and supports a genocide of the Palestinian people.

So either he really didn't get the message of his own movie that fascism, apartheid and the oppression of a group belonging to a certain ethnicity is evil and that creating an enemy out of innocent people, and demonizing them for ulterior motives is bad or he has dehumanized Palestinians so badly that he doesn't even get that the themes of this movie applies to what is being done to the Palestinians and that in reality he is actually the same as the likes of the Wizard and Morrible.

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (1)

Then congratulations! Welcome to this quick crash course to know everything about the world of Oz! The movies, the adaptations, the musicals, the books! Yes, books, with an S, because "The Wizard of Oz" everybody knows and love was just the first book of an entire BOOK SERIES that became the enormous franchise we know today! You thought there was just ONE Wizard of Oz movie? Think again! You thought "Wicked" was the only work that gave a backstory to the Witches? Get ready for some discoveries!

And so we begin our journey to the wonderful land of Oz...

The story of Oz begins with one novel. No, not one movie - but the novel that caused the movie... L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

Published in 1900, this children novel is still to this day one of the most famous works of American youth literature, as well as the master-piece of Baum, THE book everybody knows he wrote. Baum intended, with this book, to create a purely American fairy tale: he wanted to rival the European tales of Charles Perrault, the brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen - and he succeeded! The novel was a best-seller as soon as it was released, and is still considered as "America's greatest fairy-tale".

Most people know of "The Wizard of Oz" through its famous adaptation, the 1939 musical movie. While these two works do share a same set of main characters and a similar plot, the novel contains many, many details that were not adapted into the movie ; and, in return, the movie brought a lot of elements that were absent from the novel. Both, however, are still the story of a little girl by the name of Dorothy (she wasn't yet named "Gale") and her dog Toto, who are swept up into a tornado and taken to the magical Land of Oz. There she meets three comical companions (the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion), and together they go seek the Wizard of Oz in hope he can grant their wishes, only to have to escape from the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West...

If you want to read the original novel, it will be very easy! Not only is it still regularly printed today, with various anniversary editions ; but it is in public domain since the 1950s! So you can go read it for free right now, without any problems!

Most people tend to stop at just this book... Not wondering if there was any sequel, treating it as if this was just a one-shot. Except, we told you, this book was a best-seller! An ENORMOUS success! Never before had a children's book brought so much money in the United-States! As such, Baum was not going to just stop there...

While he did intent "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to be a self-contained novel existing as its own thing, in 1904 he published a sequel "The Marvelous Land of Oz":

This novel does not follow Dorothy however, but rather a very different character... A little boy who lives in the Land of Oz post-Dorothy: Tip (short for Tippetarius), an orphan boy who escapes the clutches of his wicked witch of a caretaker alongside a pumpkin-headed scarecrow he just brought to life. And the two undergo a journey to the Emerald City ruled by the Scarecrow-king, only to get swept into a revolution...

This novel was conceived in a similar way to the first one, as a "self-contained" story. While it does take place after the events of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", reuses several of the same characters (The Scarecrow and the Tin Man are part of the main party, Glinda plays a key part in the final act) and briefly recaps the events of the first novel, it can still be read on its own. This novel especially get a lot of attention today (after decades and decades of falling into pur oblivion) due to its fantasy-dissection of the topics of genders - differences between men and women, boys and girls, unfairness and injustice among sexes (the revolution in question is a "girl revolution" seeking to destroy what is perceived as a misogynistic patriarchy)... All culminating with what is still to this day one of the most famous accidental depictions of a trans character in fantasy!

But I'll return to this all in a later post, possibly...

This novel was ALSO a best-seller and a huge success. And as such... you know what that means. Yes, Baum wrote a THIRD book taking place in Oz! Well, almost... The novel actually mostly takes place in lands neighbors to those of Oz, the land of Ev and the realm of the Nome King... But all the Oz characters return - including Dorothy, who is again swept away into fairy-lands, this time not with her dog Toto, but with a pet chicken Billina.

This story is the novel "Ozma of Oz", published in 1907:

And with these three books, you have the original Oz trilogy!

"But wait, there were other Oz books, weren't there?" you ask. Oh yes, there were more books, indeed! However, I want to stop at this point because these three books do form a specific trilogy for various reasons. The trilogy of the "good" Oz books before everything went... let's say downhill (but more about that next post). But more importantly, the trilogy of Oz books most people know about!

Indeed, even if you have never read "The Marvelous Land of Oz" or "Ozma of Oz", you probably came across various elements of these books, that are regularly scattered throughout Oz adaptations and novels. For example the famous Disney movie "Return to Oz" is mostly an adaptation of "Ozma of Oz", but with numerous elements of "The Marvelous Land of Oz" added to the plot

More recently, the trilogy also formed the basis of the new plot offered by the short-lived TV series "Emerald City"!

Langwidere the princess with a hundred heads, Mombi the witch, Ozma the princess of Oz, the Nome king, Tik-Tok the automaton, Jack Pumpkinhead, general Jinjur, the land of Ev, the Powder of Life and many other names and concepts you might be familiar with come from these two direct sequels to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Sequels which unfortunately never knew the lasting popularity of their predecessor, despite being just as famous, if not more, in their time...

Next post: Baum's downfall...

[strawhatsufi]

hollywood will never release a movie about racism that criticises it as a form of national oppression intrinsic to imperialism.

elphaba is black-coded in a way that is stripped of all the history that being black carries with it. whereas real black people became black hundreds to thousands of years ago for social reasons, reasons which implicate even earlier history as well, elphaba is green and she became green the exact number of years ago that she was born, and this has no historical context to it. it's an accident. it's a contrivance very specific to elphaba which is explained in the movie. elphaba's racial coding isn't familial, it's not ancestral, it's a personal eccentricity unique to her.

elphaba's problem is basically the personal biases of individuals acting in a disorganised manner. which is deeply standard fare for imperialist portrayals of racism. anything that could be described as a system, literally everything that's socially organised in the movie, is literally on her side for almost the entire runtime. the higher ranking the official the more they favour her. it's the classic fantasy of the reactionary aspiring petty bourgeoisie, being sold here once again.

and it's elphaba who decides to break that alliance. she decides when and how it happens. elphaba is black-coded in a way where her oppression is not intrinsic to the system -- the system literally wants her to achieve a high position within it in order to increase its own power.

elphaba very much constitutes a member of the privileged class of the movie and not a member of an oppressed national minority.

but oz exists in a bubble. elphaba didn't come from somewhere. her labour wasn't necessary to do anything. nobody's was. neither glinda nor elphaba nor, crucially, the audience, have any reason to believe that anything in oz is more important than glinda's socialite bullshit. nothing in wicked arises from labour or nature or really at all. it all just exists independent of anything. nobody lays the yellow brick road or builds emerald city.

oz does not impoverish other countries, it has no other countries to impoverish, to rob of goods and labour and people, in a senseless drive for profit by which to increase the power of its bourgeoisie. because oz's portrayal has to conform to america's portrayal of its enemies -- countries like socialist albania and DPRK which do not form exploitative colonial relations. to hollywood, as to the bourgeoisie in general, this lack of exploitative colonial relations is a marker of an evil dystopia that has to be overthrown.

you can't really even tell me oz has a bourgeoisie or classes of economic exploiters and labourers. hollywood can't show that either really. the wizard just has power for power's sake. and so not only are there no national minorities (which is to say, black people among others -- there are human characters with brown skin, but nothing to suggest that they constitute a national minority let alone an exploited one) there is also nobody to exploit them. and in that context, elphaba is black coded -- a context where nothing resembling african americans exists or can exist. racial oppression, and even racial differences, cannot exist within the world of this movie. even the oppression of the talking animals is explicitly stated to have purely propaganda purposes because there is no labour in this movie and thus no basis for material oppression.

glinda, on the other hand, is way more racially coded than elphaba. because glinda actually does exist in the world where (a decreasing number of) white americans think they exist and which they craft their worldview around the assumptions of. and her actions in that context are contemptible, but they're contemptible as a personal betrayal of elphaba. as for glinda's role in a system of material oppression, it can generously be described as unclear, but really is all but stated to not exist. it's true that she's complicit in the oppression of the talking animals, but that's a policy, not intrinsic to the system, and its achievement through reform has not been narratively ruled out, giving glinda a lot of plausible deniability which she doesn't narratively deserve, because she's horrible.

glinda is exactly the kind of person who would materially exploit elphaba and her entire family. like, by name. with a smile on her face. if there were any material basis to do that. but within the movie there's no basis for her to do so. she has the personality of an overprivileged exploitative fascist. many of the characters in the movie do. but there is nothing for them to exploit. this "racism", so to speak, arises from nothing and affords no material privilege. the conflict between glinda and elphaba isn't a matter of exploiter and exploited. it's purely ideological. the consequences of the decision are basically the same for both elphaba and glinda, except that glinda is a powerful sorcerer. and thus, in this conflict, actually in a much stronger position than glinda. who sucks.

so its very possible i think to give the movie way too much credit on this. because as an imperialist american product, it necessarily lacks the self-awareness to tell the story it very obviously wants credit for having told.

and the movie to its credit takes itself seriously as telling this story, even though it hasn't. the emotional beats hit how they're supposed to hit, as if it had told it. which ultimately allows it to sell the above lies about its own imperialism and its own role as imperialist propaganda about one of the most obvious imperialist contradictions in the country that it and all hollywood movies is whitewashing

[backofthebalcony]

Glinda and Elphaba are on opposite sides of a legal battle in corporate America. But opposites attract...

Made with piffle.ai

[hitchell-mope]

Scarlet America/Wicked au.

Wanda. Elphaba Thropp.

Steve. Fiyero Tigelaar.

Kate. Nessarose Thropp.

Joaquin. Boq.

Darcy. Glinda Upland.

Clint. Doctor Dillamond.

Obadiah. The Wizard.

Agatha. Madame Morrible.

[princesssarisa]

Massive spoilers for the stage musical of Wicked and for Part 2 of the film version below...

Should Elphaba have died in the end, or is it good that the musical changes the ending so that she fakes her death and goes into exile with Fiyero instead?

I know there are some fans who think it's a total copout that the musical has her survive. And of course fans of the novel, who can't stand how much lighter the musical is by comparison, especially hate that the ending isn't tragic.

I remember once reading two fan-made outlines for alternate endings to the musical, in which the music of the finale was still the same (a reprise of "For Good" juxtaposed with "No One Mourns the Wicked"), but Elphaba really did melt. In one outline, Fiyero was genuinely killed too, and the finale showed Elphaba's spirit reuniting with him in the afterlife, and then singing the "For Good" reprise with Glinda while invisibly watching over her. In the other outline, Fiyero still survived as the Scarecrow, and shared a reunion scene with Glinda before the finale, where they mourned Elphaba's death together; then the "For Good" reprise was sung by Glinda and Fiyero, both singing about Elphaba. I can imagine either of those alternate endings being effective if they were made real.

But personally, I think I favor her survival in the musical. In the first place, killing off the heroine wouldn't fit with the relatively light, family-friendly tone of the musical as we know it. And a mainstream Wizard of Oz-inspired musical produced in America probably had to be lighter and more family-friendly than the original novel of Wicked, or else it would have flopped. Secondly, audiences – especially young women and girls – relate to Elphaba as a symbol of all marginalized identities. To some she's a woman of color, to others she's queer, to others autistic or mentally ill, to others physically disabled, to others all of the above. Some fans find it depressing enough that she's forced to fake her death and leave Oz in the end. Actually killing her off might have hurt too much and alienated too many people who identify with her.

Besides, since her reputation as a wicked witch turns out to be mostly propaganda and rumors, it makes perfect sense that "water can melt her" should turn out to be just another rumor too.

What do other people think?

[moetrash]

Other RSV Spirit's Eve costumes ideas

Since it's October, and just over a year since the RSV seasonal outfits mod was released, I thought it'd be fun to share some of the costume ideas we didn't end up going with from our brainstorming doc. These ideas were ultimately passed over for a variety of reasons (already worn by a different npc, too real world-specific, liked a different option better, etc.), but still would've been great to see... soooo here you go!

(If a character isn't listed, that's just bc we didn't have any extra ideas for them. Also, in case you wanted a refresher, here's a list of the costumes we did end up going with! Also also, bc I can't help myself, I added in some ideas as I was making this post - those ones are in [brackets].)

aguar: doc brown/mad scientist

anton: running forrest gump, the dude, jack sparrow, [flynn rider]

ariah: wendy darling, elle woods, ruth bader ginsburg

bryle: peaky blinders gangster, aaron burr from hamilton, [top gun maverick]

carmen: cat in the hat, mike wazowski, oompa loompa, sasquatch

corine: lara croft

daia: [chun li]

faye: anything heidi klum has done for halloween bc she's extra like that

flor: gwen from ben10, human ariel (in the "kiss the girl" outfit)

ian: scottish highlander (a la jamie from outlander)

irene: retro carhop, carmen sandiego, bo peep, the house from up, coraline

jeric: [ups delivery man (but the sexy kind, a la legally blonde)]

june: roronoa zoro, kaneki ken/sasaki haise, [prince zuko], [jack skellington (but with makeup, not a mask)]

keahi: [sonic the hedgehog]

kiarra: ghostbuster (the kate mckinnon one), prince charming

kiwi: kutie krab from spongebob

lenny: beetlejuice, inflatable dinosaur, macho man randy savage

louie: prairie king, [buzz lightyear], [minecraft diamond armor]

maddie: handmaid's tale uniform, marie curie (then proceeds to get mad at everyone for not recognizing her costume)

maive: queen of hearts

pika: jason momoa's aquaman, sinbad (from the 2003 movie)

sean: the local ridgeside legend of the local kiwi fruit, [car dealership dancing air tube]

sonny: charlie chaplin, vincent van gogh

torts: stegosaurus

ysabelle: britney spears from "hit me baby one more time" or "oops i did it again"

anton and paula: [victor van dort and the corpse bride], [woody & jessie]

ariah and louie: [baseball uniforms from a league of their own]

corine and ysa: kim possible and shego, dionne and cher from clueless, [elphaba and glinda], [storm and mystique]

bryle and faye: captain america and black widow, [bonnie & clyde]

bryle and jeric: super troopers cop and reno! 911 lt. dangle cop (without a wig, so just slutty, basically)

faye and ysa: [anna and elsa], [poison ivy and harley quinn (from the animated series)]

freddie and lola: quasimodo and esmeralda

ian and sean: [shrek and donkey]

keahi and trinnie: sharkboy and lava girl, pokemon to match blair and sean (probably meowth and jigglypuff (trinnie insisted on being a cute pokemon even though jigglypuff's not part of team rocket))

kimpoi and malaya: easter bunny and tooth fairy, popeye and olive oyl

maddie, corine, and ysa: [sanderson sisters], [totally spies]

philip and shiro: [mario and luigi], [purple cobra and average joe uniforms (from dodgeball)], [dug and russell (from up)]

sean and blair: rock'em sock'em robots and they just beat each other up the whole time, [chuck and tiffany], [bluey and bingo], [thing 1 and thing 2]

sonny and irene: lumiere and mrs. potts (bc they're the help)

yuuma and naomi: [minions], [ash ketchum and a low-effort pikachu]

I'm curious to hear others' ideas too, so if you have any, feel free to share in the reblogs/replies! ^^

[meret118]

“A charismatic leader who gaslights a community that this woman is wicked just because she’s standing up for a marginalized group of people in the society, how could that be [political]?” director John M. Chu joked.

. . .

Wicked the musical is based on a 1995 novel of the same title by Gregory Maguire, an anti-fascist treatise in which the Wizard becomes a Hitler-like despot. The musical wouldn’t go quite so far when it debuted on Broadway in 2003, but it did get in a number of hits at the George W. Bush administration, which had ordered the invasion of Iraq only months earlier.

. . .

“And perhaps, the show suggests, ‘wicked’ is what the W stands for” in George W. Bush.”

. . .

Singing the same lyrics today, the Wizard suggests not Bush but Trump: a leader consolidating his power by scapegoating marginalized groups and slowly but surely denying them their rights. Meanwhile, the difference in strategy between rabble-rousing progressive Elphaba and conciliatory liberal Glinda might hit home particularly hard for Democrats in the midst of their post-election recrimination.

. . .

Still, in another sense, Wicked was born to be an allegory of American politics. It can’t quite be anything else. That’s what Oz stories are for.

. . .

The Wizard of Oz, though, is an American fantasy. A map of Oz, which is shaped like a rectangle with its long side horizontal, is a simplified map of America, as though drawn by a child: unimaginably vast, spanning the inhabitable entirety of a continent from east to west. (Oz is bordered by poisonous deserts rather than oceans.) It is a country where farmers cultivate fields of corn and wheat and orchards of apples; where industrialists build vast, glittering cities; where the west is full of rough and unsettled land. And it is a country governed by a con man who is lying to the people he rules.

More at the link.